Week 3: Network and Cluster

September 19, 2011

In Week 3 of the Multiliteracies course at http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com we reflect on what it means to be a part of a network and the learning that accrues from cultivating your PLN. Dave Cormier points out that an extended network is one of the benefits of participating in a MOOC. I ask in one of my posts if we’ve been MOOCing all along, meaning that the Webheads and Multilit groups could be considered in a way a MOOC that has been happening for over a decade, and both have accumulated networks of hundred of participants. Of course we see benefits when we consider this course. Of the 6 registered participants signing up for this course, two dropped out right at the start, and of the 4 remaining, only two are active (so far, but there is still time 🙂 However, thanks to the underpinning network we also have Vanessa and Indrit and Scott, and Luciana who filled in our form and has a blog on Multiliteracies from 2010, https://sites.google.com/site/lucianaeportfolio/evo-sessions/multiliteracies-for-collaborative-learning

There are many topics we could discuss. One is what IS multiliteracies. There is a seminal work that coined the term, by the London Group in the Harvard Review of Education, and we have also used books by Stuart Selber and Mark Pegrum. Some of Mark’s works have been referenced in our course, and the pdf of the first chapter of his book Blogs to Bombs is in our YGroup files repository. There are ways to turn and reflect on the term multiliteracies. Indrit has a nice post on this here: http://indritbulku.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/first-week-of-multiliteracy/

Robyn was very active at the start of the course but lost the momentum of talking directly to us, but she has been talking to us through her blog. Here she shows us how she has her students creating e-portfolios, http://robynalbers.posterous.com/fulfilling-a-promise. She’s definitely with us in this course.

There are also so many aspects of Multiliteracies we could discuss. I like the Weinberger / Keen debates, and anything Michael Wesch writes (or presents) fascinates me. Lately as you see I’ve felt the work of Siemens, Downes, and Cormier has been particularly relevant to turning education on its head and giving it a good shakedown through the MOOC movement. I’m looking forward to popping in on Change MOOC starting this week. A lot of conversations will develop here, and have been going on especially from EduMOOC on how the concept of MOOC is impacting the potential for truly open learning. EpCoP MOOC has been more practical, mainly about tools. I’ve moved links to their recordings to our tutorials page here: http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com/w/page/10972810/Tutorials

But one key concept of MOOC is constructivism and relevance to participants in a course. We don’t need to talk about what I like, we can discuss what’s important to you. I notice in looking over Kate’s blog that almost every post touches on aspects of multiliteracies that will help people people with special needs ranging from accessibility issues to aging (and that’s just the A’s 🙂 I

I have a couple of personal goals for this week. One is to create a simple sample e-portfolio page. Another is to create a Twitter list and an aggregated page like Scott Lockman’s Netvibes, maybe in Page Flakes. We can talk about how tools like Twitter help us build productive networks. We should also have our blogs in our Google readers. In mine I’m following the feed for the Multilit YahooGroup (though I get it in email, faster) and also the feeds to these blogs:

Are there any others we should be following where content is being generated pertinent to this course? I got these from the Google Doc form database.

Kate is doing a commendable job on helping to keep our conversation going on the lists both in Posterous and in the Multiliteracies group. We have two weeks to go in this short course, and we’d love more input.